Who Is In Control Of The Other At This Time; You, Or The Holiday Season?

This week, everyone is winding down their operations. Communication from the president's office indicates that he will be unavailable for day-to-day duties for a month shortly after independence day celebrations on the 12th. The roads leading out of Nairobi have had heavy traffic for the past two weeks and are expected to witness heavier outflows as we get closer to Christmas. It is unusually heavy this early because rumours of another lockdown abound.

Except for essential services providers, the mood has caught on. Such breaks are good for us to rest and recuperate from the hard work that we put in this year.

But the shutdown is not an excuse to forget that the new year is weeks away. Most entities have finished with their 2021 planning and will greet the new year with renewed gusto and focus. But the employees entrusted with getting things on track will be focusing on where and how to find money for their own daily movements.

And that seems to be it, the only clearly laid out plans are those we make for the organisations that we work for. Beyond that, many people are plain 'flags in the wind'. They flow with the season.

Common sense is on lockdown until the rude awakening when that tough-January-by-choice moment knocks hard. Shylocks will have brisk business. This means that someone has planned to lend you money at exorbitant rates. The January misery is indeed by choice because we have taken our responsibilities too far away from logic.

We are paid to plan for our employer's business but not for ourselves. We are good at our paid jobs but bad with personal planning. When decision making is left to us, we demonstrate irresponsibility, but we play "good boy" and now increasingly, "good girl" at work.

Why isn't the professionalism at work flowing naturally into our personal lives during the festivities? Why must we deplete our savings now?

Christmas is a time set aside to celebrate the birth of Christ. It happened in a manger, a humble place to be for a prince. A place meant for animals and not humans. Today, what we celebrate is the excuse to our unabated consumerism culture driven by the biggest stakeholders, the producers of all things purchasable at Christmas. Majority of them don't believe in the concept of Christ.

Christ will never rescue you in January after your excesses in December because you never did it for Him. You never cared for the orphans and widows in distress. You associated yourself with the gold ring-wearer more than with the guy in tatarred clothes, once you passed judgement on them. For Christ, it is just 10% that He wants from you but at Christmas, you spend 110% on yourself.

So who is in charge between you and the season? Before getting down to answering this question, let us ask another one.

Did God purpose it that because many people lose control when left to their own devices, it was better to keep them employed, for all their productive lives? I ask this because it is only the employers that earn during the Christmas season and the employees that spend all that they have.

I think that God meant for us to learn the prudent ways of our employers so that when we align ourselves to these principles, we get matured into future employers ourselves. If your employer has a penchant for cutting corners and shortcuts, then you as their fruit will be just as much, a thoroughbred cheat. The result then manifests during festive times such as now where one cheats themselves broke. When you are the odd one out, you are either a shining star worth emulating or a thorn in the flesh of the twisted minds.

Or is it pure coincidence that those who work for responsible employers tend to act in orderly ways?

So to answer our earlier question, those who have authority over us, are responsible. When you spend, it is because you've been paid by someone with authority over you. The only difference is that you are spending by displaying habits that would never have gotten you the job in the first place. This means that we are paid to behave well but left alone to misbehave at our pleasure and leisure away from work.

But in a real sense, we are meant to behave well even when away from work. Most military guys that we meet out there conduct themselves admirably because of their training. Even when the bosses are away, they stick to the drill.

It is very clear to us all, that the majority who celebrate Christmas, do so without adhering to Christ's standards. You take a gift when invited for a birthday but you never gift Jesus by sharing with the less fortunate. You down it all alone.

May the spirit of Christmas grip you correctly and may you be the example that leaves a lasting impact in others. Merry Christmas to all who have shut down and have yourselves a happy 2021. Nervy Twists shall resume in January.